


Let Me Be Your Coffee Pot

by PrepSchoolAda



Category: Detroit Evolution - Fandom, Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Coffee?!?!?!?, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, Happy birthday Macca!, M/M, Octopunk Media's Detroit: Evolution Fan Film, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:20:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25432258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrepSchoolAda/pseuds/PrepSchoolAda
Summary: [A birthday fic for Macca! Happy birthday, my lovely! This fic is set between Detroit Awakening and Detroit Evolution in the Octopunk universe!]The coffee maker in the DPD break room is broken, making Gavin even more insufferable than usual. Nines takes Gavin to replace it, if only to shut him the hell up.
Relationships: Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Comments: 9
Kudos: 72





	Let Me Be Your Coffee Pot

**Author's Note:**

  * For [maccacrunchy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/maccacrunchy/gifts).



> once upon a time, Jo wrote a very short Reed900 fic for DE Art Fest and said: never again. Too much stress.
> 
> SHE LIED.
> 
> HAPPY BIRTHDAY MACCAAAAA!!!! This fic is literally just for Macca but if you like it too, that's awesome! I don't normally write Reed900, I'm an Adanorth gal, but I hope this is a worthy addition to the tag!

Detectives Reed and Nines glaring and making snide remarks at each other was nothing new to the bullpen, but it had gotten far more intense recently. It could no longer be called an entertaining feud, it was just deeply uncomfortable. Reed in particular seemed to be seething from the beginning of his shift right up until the end every day. Fowler didn't seem to see an issue; as long as Reed maintained his usual standard of detective work he saw no need to reprimand him, so no action was taken. Despite this vote of confidence in Reed's favour, the tension still deeply disturbed the other officers and detectives. Reed was radiating pure vengeance and nobody knew why. Officer Chen didn't seem concerned, she never was - she was too close with Reed to be in danger of his wrath. Alarmingly, Nines didn't seem to be worried either.

However, that didn't mean he didn't find the petulance to be deeply irritating.

"Detective, this has to stop," sighed Nines as they surveyed case files that afternoon. Gavin shot him the customary cold look reserved just for his insufferable partner. As usual, it didn't have the desired effect on Nines, who continued to stare him down. 

"I never stop," snapped Gavin. 

"That may be the problem," said Nines observantly. He'd switched back to his 'I'm so innocent' tone of voice as if he hadn't just been talking to Gavin like his god damned elementary school teacher. Seriously, fuck this plastic prick.

"Perhaps you should take a break?" said Nines in an attempt to be civil. "Your stress levels are strikingly high, should this continue it could have damaging effects on your mental health"-

"If you scan me one more fuckin' time," growled Gavin. Nines had to resist smirking. It was almost cute how threatening Detective Reed tried to be. He often laughed about it with Connor. Though despite the RK bonding over how silly humans could be, Nines found himself defending Gavin against Connor's more cutting remarks. It simply felt... off, to hear someone insult Gavin that wasn't Nines himself.

"So," said Nines mischievously. "I take that to mean you'd like to hear more about my latest scan of you, I assume?"

"Fuck off, tin can."

Nines ignored this command. "I noticed that your caffeine intake as of late is unusually low. Please don't take this as an insult as you often like to do, Detective. I'm quite impressed that you're cutting down."

Gavin's jaw clenched and he muttered something Nines didn't quite catch.

"Excuse me?"

" _I said it's not my choice_."

Nines suddenly recalled a conversation with Officer Chen in the break room yesterday. She'd complained about the broken coffee maker. Nines hadn't been giving it much thought, the coffee maker was of little consequence to him after all. He hadn't considered until this moment the negative effects this happenstance would have on his caffeine addicted partner.

"I see," said Nines reflectively. "It's possible to make coffee without a machine to do it for you, Detective, if you weren't already aware."

"I'm too fuckin' tired to make it manually _without my fuckin' coffee_ ," Gavin snarled.

Nines raised an eyebrow. "Is this a thinly veiled attempt to get me to make coffee for you?"

"No. Like you said, I don't need a machine to make it for me."

"Witty," said Nines, attempting to mask his annoyance at the somewhat bigoted comment. He didn't want a repeat of what happened after the VB800 crime scene, after all. 

As Gavin's lunch break approached, Nines made a suggestion.

"Perhaps we should go and get a new coffee maker."

Gavin stiffened. That sounded halfway domestic. He wouldn't even do that with Tina.

"Not with your money, obviously," said Nines quickly, misinterpreting the slight rise in Gavin's stress levels. "We can request a portion of the budget from Captain Fowler. I'm sure he'll agree that you're the best person to choose a new communal coffee maker. Your fixation upon coffee will likely determine the best one for the whole precinct."

That actually sounded quite reasonable to Gavin. He very much liked the idea of having a coffee maker in the precinct that he actually knew how to use when sleep deprived, especially when he was the one getting the most use out of it. There were worse ways to spend his lunch break, he supposed. 

"You're tagging along, then?" said Gavin, speaking considerably softer than he had in the past few days, now that there was a possibility of getting to drink coffee at work again.

"I don't see why not," said Nines. He didn't do much on his lunch breaks, anyway. It's not like he had to eat. Plus, it could be close to pleasant to spent time with his partner when they weren't trying to solve a murder.

Gavin exhaled, standing up with considerable effort. The bags under his eyes were particularly evident today, and his posture further indicated extreme exhaustion. Did he ever sleep?

"Alright, let's go," said Gavin, confidently yet unsteadily. Nines took the keys to the car out of his hand.

"I think it's best if I drive, Detective," said Nines. If he wasn't so certain it would lead to a scene, he'd be physically guiding Gavin out of the DPD. He was walking almost exactly like Bambi.

*

"Walmart is likely to have the most inexpensive selection," said Nines as they drove through Detroit together. "Captain Fowler gave us quite a generous helping of the budget for this endeavour, but personally I'd rather not spend more than we have to. As tempting as it may be for you to choose the fanciest one available for quality's sake, it's best we stay simple. It's for everybody's use, after all, whether or not other detectives use it as much as you. We want a machine that can be handled easily and efficiently, as well as one that acts quickly so every officer can get coffee fast during their breaks. I have my own concerns about this mission only feeding your current caffeine addiction, Detective, but ultimately I can't tell you what to do. Despite my advice, I have no doubt you'll consider your way to be the better one."

Gavin rested his head on the passenger seat window, half asleep. "Mmmm-hmmmmm."

Nines rolled his eyes, but did feel sympathy for Gavin. He didn't know what it was like to be tired in the human way. It seemed much more random and frequent than his own fatigue, with far more side effects.

"You have enough time for a seventeen-minute nap should you need it, Detective."

That sounded magical, but Gavin decided against it. He wasn't risking having the nightmares with his prick partner around. Sure, they'd come to an understanding recently, but if Nines caught him having nightmares there would be questions, which would be far worse than the mockery. He'd want to help. He'd want to fix them. Gavin couldn't handle people trying to fix him. They only ended up blaming him when they failed to, even though he never asked them to try in the first place.

Nines took the silence to mean refusal. "Or don't."

Nines was rather relieved that he'd figured out the reasoning behind Gavin's newfound and perpetual terrible mood. He liked to think they were making progress in their unorthodox partnership; Nines didn't bristle at what he used to perceive as humanistic weaknesses in Gavin's work performance anymore, and Gavin didn't purposefully trip Nines up whenever he walked around the bullpen anymore. Not as much, anyway.

That being said, Nines was determined not to screw this up. Every minute spent with Detective Reed was a minute spent walking on eggshells. He was so unpredictable, so rash, and in some instances so fascinating that Nines was often concerned he'd say the wrong thing. Not scared, per se - frankly, Nines thought a light breeze could take Gavin out so the possibility of physical violence didn't perturb him - but definitely troubled. Nevertheless, he seemed to be doing a fine job of not pissing off the irritable human in the past few weeks, which was exactly why he needed to fix this coffee situation before their relationship deteriorated again. He would not tarnish his personal record; he'd gone at least 22 days without Gavin flying off the handle and he was rather proud of that.

Unfortunately, Nines realised that Gavin wasn't going to be much use on this excursion due to extreme sleep and caffeine deprivation.

"This one," said Gavin, pointing a decisive finger towards the middle of a display in the kitchen appliance section of the store. "This is perfect."

Nines pursed his lips. "Detective Reed, I don't know how to tell you this, but that is a toaster."

" _You're_ a toaster, you... toaster," grumbled Gavin, trying with little success to pull his selection from the shelf. 

"Okay..." sighed Nines, pulling Gavin away from the display by his collar. "You're not going to be much use like this. Luckily for us, this Walmart has a coffee shop."

Gavin groaned. "But the coffee's _shiiiiiiit_."

"I'll take what I can get, Detective," said Nines firmly, though for all his perceived annoyance with Gavin, he was being very patient about guiding him towards the coffee shop and sitting him down by a window seat. When he was sure Gavin wasn't going to topple out of his chair, Nines went to acquire some much needed coffee.

After a few minutes of Gavin trying very hard not to fall asleep on the table, Nines returned to the table from the checkout counter and slid a take-out cup over to his partner.

"One sugar and three creams, just the way you like it," said Nines as he sat down across from Gavin, sounding like he was relaying case information rather than a coffee order.

Gavin had gulped half the cup before he registered what Nines had said.

"How'd you know that?" said Gavin, for once sounding more curious than hostile. 

"I'm an android detective, I'm built to be observant," said Nines matter-of-factly. "As an advanced prototype, I'm capable of retaining several memory files' worth of information"-

"Yeah, yeah," sighed Gavin. Nines really liked reminding him about the advanced prototype thing, with emphasis on 'advanced'. He didn't mind it so much now, however - since the _I, Robot_ incident, it felt more like banter than an actual superiority complex. Gavin was finding he appreciated many things he used to despise about Nines up until that night. He _liked_ how he didn't get emotional at crime scenes; one of them had to keep their composure, after all. He liked that Nines was quiet and observant; it wasn't creepy anymore, it was kind of useful most of the time. He even liked being insulted; it was nice to have someone around who could keep up with his assholery. Most of all, he really liked that Nines defended him to their colleagues. Gavin was sure Nines thought he didn't know about that last one. He did.

Not that he'd ever tell Nines any of that in a million years; he wasn't giving this smug bastard an excuse to give him that Ken Doll smirk any more than usual.

Between sips of coffee, Gavin wondered if it was a good idea to vocalise a question that was now running around his head due to Nines bringing up memory files. Fuck it, he was going for it. He was too tired to consider the 'consequences of his actions' or whatever the fuck Fowler kept telling him to consider before he did something irrational.

"You ever run out of space? With all the memory files, I mean?" said Gavin.

Nines chuckled in response. He would have found a question like that insensitive a few months back. Now he found human curiosity almost charming. He had plenty of questions about how humans coped, in all fairness. Maybe one day he'd ask Gavin about the nicotine thing - what was it with humans and nicotine?

"Storage space isn't really a concern for me," said Nines. "Think of it like the cloud in those smartphones of yours, but it keeps going infinitely. If there's a limit to mine, I've yet to discover it."

Gavin turned his attentions to the window. Nothing interesting was going on outside, he just didn't want to look Nines in the eye for this next part.

"You ever wanna delete stuff? Not for storage space or whatever but just because... you ever wanna delete stuff?"

Nines eyebrows knit together in confusion. "Well, no, not particularly. Any single memory file could be important in a future investigation, it would be foolish to get rid of any."

Halfway through his sentence, Nines realised what Gavin had actually meant, and was quick to add even more to his spiel in an attempt to rectify it.

"There's nothing I want to forget. Nothing so dreadful that's worth erasing has happened to me as of yet. Even if it did, I can't picture myself erasing it."

Gavin grimaced. "Huh. Cool."

Nines looked at the ever-present bags under Gavin's eyes as he spoke. "Are there things that you'd delete?"

Gavin shrugged. "Told you before, you don't wanna hear my whole sob story."

"That's not what I was asking."

Fuck, Gavin regretted bringing this up in a god damn Walmart coffee shop when he hadn't slept for a week and couldn't string together a coherent sentence. Oh well, he was in it now, time to dig himself out.

"Sure," said Gavin. "Why not? I'd be a much more competent partner if I wasn't constantly bogged down by all my shit, wouldn't I?"

Nines cringed at the memory of their altercation in the break room. 

"You _are_ a competent partner. You would be with or without your past."

Nines meant it. Hank and Connor had given him plenty of pep talks in preparation for being partnered with Gavin and his attitude problem, and during them he'd been quick to deduce that Gavin's hostility was usually born from a burning need to excel at his job. This led to Nines being very confused when he actually met Gavin; there was no need for him to be so aggressive out of fear of losing his career. Gavin was an excellent detective. Why was he so afraid of being inadequate when he simply wasn't?

"In other words, Detective," said Nines, quite confident this time that he was about to say the right thing. "I can't tell you what you should or shouldn't do with the hypothetical ability to erase your memories. But I can assure you that you're a good person with or without them. You're more than capable in spite of your past."

Gavin tried to hide the fact that the corners of his mouth were pulling up into a small smile. Compliments from Nines were just very rare, and felt so much better than compliments from anyone else.

"Good talk, tin can," said Gavin, standing up with newfound gusto after having finally satisfied his caffeine craving and gained the verbal approval of his stuck-up partner. "Let's go get a coffee maker."

"Remember, not too expensive," Nines reminded him. "Or too complicated. It's for everyone."

"Ugh, whatever," said Gavin, tossing the paper coffee cup into the recycling bin. "You're just jealous that I spend more time with the coffee maker at work than you."

"I'm not sure that's true, Detective," said Nines with a hint of a giggle.

They ended up choosing a simple one (against Gavin's wishes, who wanted one with too many buttons for even Nines to keep track of), and when it was brought back to the precinct, everyone in the bullpen agreed that Gavin was much easier to be around when he had at least three break room coffees in him. No one was sure how Nines did it, but since his arrival at the precinct he'd made Gavin Reed almost pleasant to work with. It was quite the DPD miracle.

Ironically, Gavin didn't spend much time with the new coffee maker, as over the next few weeks Nines had ended up making Gavin's coffee.

**Author's Note:**

> can u believe Macca invented birthdays?!?


End file.
